IDDYD 16

Chapter 16

“Matthew!”

Alice called his name as she ran over, grabbing and shaking him.

“Matthew, come to your senses! Wake up!”

But no matter how much she grabbed and shook him, he wouldn’t wake up. Aiden, who had been scanning the missing persons, spoke up.

“They already seem to be tainted by demonic energy.”

Some of the people already had purple spots appearing on their faces. It was one of the symptoms of demonic energy poisoning.

While Alice checked the condition of the fallen, Aiden counted their number.

“17, 18……. 18 total. It matches the number of missing persons.”

“It matches?”

Alice quickly looked around. The characteristics of the missing persons she had heard about while canvassing the village and the appearances of the fallen people seemed similar. Then, these must be the missing persons.

“The suspicious guest who stayed at Emma’s inn isn’t here.”

Alice said, recalling the description Emma had given of the guest. She had said he was tall, thin, and had a gaunt face. There was no such person here.

If he had also gotten into the carriage with Matthew and been lured by the forest’s demonic energy, he should be among the missing persons. The fact that he wasn’t here was very suspicious.

“Anyway, for now, let’s think about removing the demonic energy that has spread in this forest.”

Saving the lives of the missing persons was the priority. Alice, who had been squatting, straightened her legs and stood up, frowning.

“I can feel even stronger demonic energy than before.”

Demonic energy, so thick and viscous it seemed to fill the space, was seeping out from deep inside the cave.

She had never felt demonic energy this powerful before. As Alice stretched out one hand, a shining, spherical orb of light shot from her palm, brightly illuminating the dark cave interior.

Even as she steadied her dizzy head with her hand, she took step by step toward the source of the flowing demonic energy.

“It’s dangerous to go alone.”

Reacting to her solo action, Aiden chased after her. Meanwhile, Alice had located the source of the demonic energy covering not just this cave but the entire forest.

Aiden, who had been following Alice with a worried expression, also saw the source and made a surprised face.

In front of them was a crystal, blackened and corroded by demonic energy.

“……This is troubling.”

Alice let out an unusually weak voice. Even for her, eradicating demonic energy this dense in an instant was difficult.

“What’s that?”

Then, a large hole in the rock where the crystal was embedded caught her eye. Inside the hole lay a large sphere that looked like a demon beast’s core.

Since an incredibly powerful demonic energy, unlike anything she had felt before, was flowing from the sphere, it seemed this was likely the cause of the abduction incident.

But something was strange. A demon beast’s core served a role like a heart for the beast, keeping it alive and supplying demonic energy.

However, if you removed the core from a demon beast, the demonic energy inside would vanish as if the beast’s breath had been extinguished. It couldn’t hold demonic energy while exposed externally.

Aiden, also finding this point suspicious, opened his mouth.

“Someone may have intentionally infused it with demonic energy.”

“Is that possible?”

“I can’t do it, but the culprit might have found a way to make it possible.”

“…….”

Alice crossed her arms and sank into thought. As of now, there was nothing she could know until they caught the culprit and interrogated him.

So first, they had to eliminate the demonic energy emanating from here to save the poisoned people……. After staring at the crystal for a long time, Alice shifted her gaze to Aiden and spoke.

“Aiden, don’t you know a way to remove demonic energy?”

“Well…….”

Aiden smiled as if troubled. Even he, a demon, found it difficult to make already spread demonic energy disappear. Alice furrowed her brow.

“This is a big problem. It’s hard even for me, but this…”

A mage’s mana and the demon world’s demonic energy had similar yet different properties. While the mana within the body emitted a positive energy, demonic energy emitted a negative energy, which made them vastly different.

However, ultimately, mana and demonic energy were forces with the same root. Mages who possessed mana had a certain degree of immunity to demonic energy.

The reason Alice wasn’t poisoned by the demonic energy despite being in this dense concentration was because of that. She could endure longer within the demonic energy due to her large amount of internal mana.

But precisely because of that, she, as a mage, couldn’t make the demonic energy spread in the air disappear. Because their properties conflicted, they could repel each other, but it was hard to gather it all in one place to eradicate it.

Using mana to push the demonic energy away wasn’t an option either, as the amount spread in the forest was too vast, and the displaced energy could cause harm elsewhere. For now, even she was at a loss.

Purifying demonic energy was the domain of priests, not mages. Moreover, purifying this much demonic energy would be too much for even one priest.

“It would have been much better to have one though.”

As a demon summoner, she had deliberately avoided having a priest by her side because it made her uneasy. If she had known this would happen, she would have brought one even if it was a strain.

An investigation team assembled by the main temple was on its way to the mountain range, but she couldn’t just wait idly for them to arrive.

The distance from the capital to the northern Earldom of Erdin was considerable, and it would take time to reach the Saint Mountains near the border. The missing persons’ lives would run out before the team arrived.

Alice racked her brain, trying desperately to find some countermeasure. Watching her, Aiden spoke in a low voice.

“I do know one method to remove demonic energy.”

“What?”

Alice quickly turned to look at Aiden. Aiden hesitated a little before continuing.

“You probably won’t like it much.”

“Is that important right now? Saving people comes first.”

Despite Alice’s answer, Aiden remained silent for a while before finally opening his mouth.

“Then promise me one thing. No cursing.”

“Fine.”

Muttering to herself about when she had ever cursed at him, Alice waited.

“You directly summon a demon beast and form a contract.”

But at Aiden’s following words, Alice couldn’t help but make an absurd expression.

“Are you insane?”

Eventually, harsh words flew from her mouth.

“You promised not to curse.”

“Have you been poisoned by demonic energy too?”

“…….”

In response to Aiden’s request, Alice corrected her statement. The tone was different, but the meaning was ultimately the same—asking if he had also been affected by the demonic energy.

“No, I understand why you’re reacting that way. Just hear me out.”

“Alright, let’s hear the reason why you’re suggesting summoning a demon beast to me, who’s already facing execution for accidentally summoning a demon.”

Alice crossed her arms and stood with her weight on one leg. It was a very delinquent posture for a ducal young lady. Seeing Alice’s slanted posture for the first time, Aiden scratched his cheek and continued.

“Haven’t you ever read those fairy tales as a child? The ones about mages who command demon beasts.”

“I have. But those fairy tales were usually about mages who fell into dark magic, used demon beasts to throw the country into chaos, and were later executed by a hero who appeared.”

In the Parthean Empire’s fairy tales, anything related to the demon world—demons, demon beasts, dark magic—was all defined as evil that must be eradicated from the world.

Suggesting demon beast summoning in such an empire… As Alice’s eyes narrowed again, Aiden hastily added.

“No, not that kind of story. There are also stories about mages who have familiars.”

“You mean the story about the witch who used a demon beast as a familiar to kidnap people for experiments and was executed?”

“……Are the fairy tales of this era all such cruel content?”

Muttering that it couldn’t be good for children’s education, Aiden continued.

“The fairy tale I was thinking of was about a lonely mage who accidentally met a demon beast, made it a familiar, and lived happily ever after.”

“Our empire had a story where both the demon beast and the mage were happy?”

“It existed 500 years ago. Anyway, the point of what I’m saying is that demon beasts aren’t the exclusive property of demons. Ordinary mages can also command demon beasts in the form of familiars. It’s just that there weren’t mages who could withstand the demonic energy emitted by a demon beast during summoning, so they couldn’t do it.”

This was another thing she was hearing for the first time. Aiden pointed at Alice, who had a surprised expression, and continued.

“So that’s my proposal to you. I think you could sufficiently withstand the demonic energy from a demon beast. You’re standing on two feet in this forest soaked in demonic energy right now; can’t you handle the demonic energy from just one demon beast?”

Aiden added that he was only suggesting this because it was Alice; if it were any other mage, he wouldn’t have even taught them this method.

But there were still many things Alice couldn’t understand.